Ball of Slime MCMIX
Ball of Slime MCMIX (the 1909th)
Origins
An unusual variant (by mutation, experimentation, accident, or combination?) of the ballus slimus genus, a distant cousin of the Gaian battle blob. Its body is in a constant state of quantum flux between solid and liquid, seemingly unstable and displaying both states' properties.
Retrieved from near the crash site of the alien craft in Atland, Ball was brought in for study at Shift's biological weapons lab. An experimental beast broke loose, shattering glass everywhere, fuselage and pipes clawed and ripped, releasing chemical fumes. The base was on red alert, containment field activated, but two scientists were knocked unconscious, trapped inside. Other uncontrolled biological creatures escaped their cells and went on a rampage. However, when rescue operations arrived on the scene, they found the two staff members unharmed and the monsters unconscious.
Monitor camera records were checked, revealing what happened. A containment case broke next to the fallen scientists, releasing bluish goo into the environment. As monsters stalked the closer to the biologists, the slime seemed to swell like a cat’s furry back arching at danger. When the beasts pounced on the men, the fluidic living thing stretched out protectively over the labcoats, serving as a flexible shield, deflecting.. nay, absorbing, even, the swipes and blows. Then tendrils extended to stifle monsters’ limbs, suffocating their movements, or at least weakening their aggression much like how the ocean blunts a pugilist's strikes beneath the surface. The slime further spread to cover their heads: eyes, ears, orifices, tapping into their cerebellum and injecting biochemicals that slowly sapped their consciousness. When revived later in secured cells, the monsters were never the same; they were more docile. In this weapons lab, their value and rating as 'weapons' plummeted flat to nil.
The slime oozed back into its original canister, for some reason later to be discovered that it needed an enclosure to contain itself while it rested and regenerated.
Abilities
Healing: it sacrifices matter from its body to replace damaged tissues of another
Shield: it can form protective shapes and has tensile ‘biological steel’ strength.
Malleability: it can transform not only into almost any shape, but into any element, although if metallic, the pieces affected cannot return to organic state -- those portions are lost.
Regenerative: it regenerates faster with fluid intake of organic matter, but can survive from sunlight as well, though at a much slower rate.
Caveat: Ball of Slime daily requires a down time of 8 hrs for regeneration, but can survive for a few days without rest, provided his matter integrity suffered none and energy spent is minimal. It conserves energy by assuming the shape most frugal: a sphere. A ball. However, after prolonged wakefulness, Ball needs twice as much down time to catch up.
Traits
Ball has an inexplicable penchant for preserving life (including those of ‘foes’).
The Shift laboratory's theory about the Ball of Slime: two lighter-hued orbs within the blob, which seemed to be its pair of eyes, are actually twin nuclei serving as central systems; an unusual binary brain. Ball of Slime when in civilization assumes a faceless humanoid form, with the 'eyes' upon the 'head', patterned after the caretaker scientist it was most fond of.
Intelligent, sentient. Able to understand basic human communications, doing so with colour changes, nods and shakes. Emitting sounds required unnecessary energy expenditure, although it would produce high-pitched squeaks when the occasion calls for it, such as in celebratory moments--or perhaps just to fit in.
Ball likes to observe living things: chasing butterflies, watching fish, 'staring' at a spider building its web, and so forth. It's wary of new people, requiring a period of observation and familiarity before engaging in playful interactions.
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